


Hail to Wisdom in War

by Mars1_starsailor



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types
Genre: Blood and Gore, Character Death, Ethical Dilemmas, F/M, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-06-05 03:01:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15161066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mars1_starsailor/pseuds/Mars1_starsailor
Summary: Jenna Seppala is a synthetic biologist working solo on Mars for the Alliance on a biotic amp research project. As the project finishes up on Mars, she begins to do research that has put the Alliance in hot water before. However, she can't help but turn back to her earlier work on AI.





	Hail to Wisdom in War

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is my first story. I'd like to shout out to MaggieWilde8 for proofreading and helping me develop the first chapter.  
> Since this is my first story, there might still be some spelling and grammar mistakes and I'd be happy to fix them.  
> Just 2 warnings, this is not a romance/smut story despite having a pairing mentioned in the tags. I'm not someone to write it in my own writing 'cause I couldn't if I wanted.   
> Since I'm currently in the process of getting my degree. I would not expect regular updates but I have no intentions of abandoning this story.  
> Until then check out chapter one.

Burning

Her eyes hurt from a horrible, burning itch. The whites of her eyes were, probably, now red. Dr. Jenna Seppala could feel her eyes beginning to droop as her mind called for sleep.

She hadn’t got very far with her research in the last few hours. She was supposed to build more algorithms to test the creation and combination of synthetic nucleotides. That’s what she told them anyways.

Currently, Jenna was involved in a project on Mars to develop nanocells that would  integrate into the body on the cellular level and work on any sort of cellular damage.. These nanocell’s programming resembled genes on DNA but instead of genetic information they had programming script on them to carry out their responsibilities and self care. These programs were designed to be connectable via wireless connection so they could updated periodically. From this, project Jenna was inspired to look back on her thesis on Organic and Synthetic integration. 

As fascinating as her thesis was, the Alliance had other uses for her mind power.  They’d wanted her to program biotic amps that would lower the risks of implantation in young biotics, to better amp up their powers while increasing their endurance and finessing their control over their powers. 

Jenna, meanwhile, dreamt of solving a philosophical question: how to make a bridge between synthetics and organics without compromising both. Now her thesis could be put to practical test. Unfortunately, what she making her plans to use her information for was extremely illegal. Made so by the Geth uprising and strictly enforced after the Alliance got away with a few scratches while dodging crippling sanctions by the Citadel Council. Then further cemented by Alec Ryder’s court martial and dishonorable discharge over researching in to ideas like her’s to make integrate organic and AI into one being. 

Jenna wished she hadn’t taken the extra hours to stay up. She’d stayed up to copy the result information she’d given them from her research and simulations to her computer. She needed the information for her own project.  

Instead, she’d lost herself in her imagination in the last hour. 

Now Jenna was tired, irritated, and red eyed.  She ran a hand through her loosened hair. 

She looked at the clock over her dresser.  It was 23:12

A wave of dread burnt through her.  The amount of work she had to do and then wanted to copy. A whole systems worth plus set up and application of the programming. 

There was so much of it to do! The anxiety was starting to rise like a tide. Jenna slapped her hands down on her desk and pushed herself up from her uncomfortable wooden seat.  She started to pace. Clenching and unclenching her hands, painfully digging her nails into her palms.

Jenna, abruptly, stopped her pacing. “Okay,” she whispered to herself. “Pacing is not helping… So, what to do, Jenna?”

Standing upright and properly. She breathed in and out steadily for twenty seconds. 

She did this several times until the panic was gone and an exhausted haze was the only thing left.

She closed her eyes and reopened her eyes. She glanced at the clock again. She’d wasted five minutes pacing, as she turned towards her computer.  _ Well, fuck! _

Plopping down in her seat, she saved her latest work and scrolled through the rest of what she had done. To her surprise, she’d done more than she’d realized or even promised. All that was left was to copy it down.  _ How much of that had I’d even encrypted? _ She switched to her personal screen. 

Not a lot had been copied and even less had been encrypted.

She looked at the clock and it was 23:12. 

All she had to do was figure how much she actually needed to copy and encrypt. Just the general information, not the the things specific to this current Alliance project.

Jenna went back and forth between files. Checking and double checking.

This would going to take longer than she wanted but there was an ember of hope to get it done.

Too bad, Jenna felt like she was going to hate herself tomorrow. 

She kept up her pace until everything had been copied and encrypted to her personal computer. By the time she was done an hour and a half had passed. She still needed to double check the information and encryption; still needed to correct anything miscopied in her sleepiness. 

At this point, she didn’t care. The panic did not arise again and the adrenaline rush that drove her was over. She didn’t even want to think about finding a way to stay awake. All she cared about now was setting up the Encryptionsift software and transfer programs, she’d built to find any and save any errors in her USB and going to bed in her, now comfortable, little cot. 

She keyed in the final characters and the software began its shifting through the load of information standing up with her eyes half closed. She’d have to get up earlier than her sleep deprived mind would care.

Turning towards the cots, she crawled into bed with a niggle at the back of her brain. 


End file.
